This invention relates to apparatus and method for loading a vehicle having a cab employing a U-shaped frame carrying a winch and related apparatus forwardly in a carrying compartment which is especially useful for positioning a wheeled trailer on tracks above the carrying compartment wherein sides of the carrying compartment are partially isolated from road shocks and the trailer is fixed for transport without interfering with free access to the carrying compartment.
Wheeled trailers, for example, are customarily towed behind a pickup truck or other apparatus having a cab and a carrying compartment often utilizing a ball and socket hitch. The towing of the wheeled trailer precludes the towing of another vehicle such as a camper and the like because of the inability to properly tow more than one articulated vehicle utilizing ball and socket hitches and the like. Thus, if a camper as well as a boat and trailer are to be transported to a camping site it is necessary to utilize two vehicles, one for towing the boat and trailer and the other for towing the camper. The problem of loading pickup trucks has been addressed in the past, for example, wherein a boom carrying a power operated winch is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,585. An example of utilizing trackways for loading vehicles is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,671. U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,595 discloses a rigid frame carried by sides of a carrying compartment and utilizing a fixed guide rail extending centrally longitudinally of the carrying compartment for guiding a winch cable with trailer attached.
This invention deals with the problem of effectively facilitating the loading of bulky objects for transport on a pickup truck and the like. The difficulties of towing two wheeled loads as by a pickup truck is avoided by the provision of improved apparatus and method for loading and positioning a wheeled trailer on the pickup truck for transport leaving a towing hitch carried thereby free for towing a camper and the like.